Excellence in leadership in the Middle East 2020: Commercial Bank of Qatar

When the Covid-19 pandemic reached Qatar and foreign exchange houses were forced to close, a customer contacted Commercial Bank of Qatar (CB) with concerns that his domestic workers were no longer able to send critical remittance payments to families in their home countries.

Given Qatar’s large population of foreign workers, Commercial Bank recognized that this issue was much bigger than just one household. The bank’s innovators immediately went to work to develop a contactless digital solution and, within 72 hours, the CB Household Worker PayCard was launched.

Commercial Bank’s rapid and innovative response to this pressing issue deserves recognition as excellence in leadership. 

Remittances from the Gulf are a key source of foreign exchange for many countries, as well as a vital source of funds for many individuals. 

The World Bank predicts that global remittances will decline by about 20% in 2020 due to the pandemic. 

International remittances totalled $714 billion in 2019, according to research by Tellimer, which calculates that an additional $500 million was sent via informal channels.